I’ve always kind of hated this question. It’s not that it’s illegitimate or anything like that. It’s just a spectacularly annoying question, because fundamental grammar rules aren’t terribly useful for dealing with most of the answer choices. We have to fight with some goofy meaning issues that aren’t very straightforward.
So I’ll approach this particular explanation differently than usual. Instead of launching right into the answer choices, we’ll use a few stripped-down sentences to illustrate the principles at work in this question. So take a look at these puppies first:
1. Arpit studies hard so that he should get a good GMAT score.
2. Arpit studies hard because he should get a good GMAT score.
3. Arpit studies hard because of getting a good GMAT score.
4. Arpit studies hard in order to get a good GMAT score.
5. Arpit studies hard to get a good GMAT score.
The first three are all at least a little bit illogical if you think strictly and literally about the meaning of the sentences. “Should” implies some sort of value judgment, and that’s not appropriate here: Arpit studies in order to obtain a good GMAT score, NOT because he “should” get a good GMAT score. For that reason, #1 & #2 are wrong.
Similarly, Arpit doesn't study hard “because of getting a good GMAT score.” If we think about that phrase literally (in sentence #3), the sequencing is wrong, because it suggests that getting a good GMAT score is the cause, and “Arpit studies hard” is the effect. And that makes no sense at all.
But #4 and #5 both make plenty of sense, because they clarify that Arpit studies in order to achieve the goal of a good GMAT score. We probably don’t need the phrase “in order to”, when just “to” would suffice. But either #4 or #5 are fine.
If you feel clear about everything I just wrote, then stop, and retry the original question above. If it still doesn’t work for you, then keep reading…
Quote:
(A) in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics
Before we get into the meaning stuff, there’s a nice parallelism error that we can work with: “…
in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics and
partly because crossbreeding…” That’s not pretty.
And perhaps more importantly, the meaning makes no sense here, largely because of the word “should.” (See example #1, above.) So (A) is out.
Quote:
(B) in part for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers
(B) has the same parallelism error as (A):
in part for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers and
partly because crossbreeding…” That’s still not pretty, and it’s enough to eliminate (B).
For whatever it’s worth, I’m also not crazy about the phrase “for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers.” You wouldn’t say “Arpit studies hard for getting a good GMAT score”, right? It makes much more sense to say “Arpit studies hard
to get a good GMAT score” – and it would make more sense to say “cattle breeders have used crossbreeding…
to acquire characteristics in their steers…”
In any case, the parallelism is enough to eliminate (B), and we definitely have better options below.
Quote:
(C) partly because of their steers acquiring certain characteristics
(C) has exactly the same problem as example #3, above. (C) seems to get the causality confused, because it suggests that the steers acquired certain characteristics first, and because of that, ranchers decided to use crossbreeding. That’s illogical: the steers acquired characteristics because the ranchers used crossbreeding, and not the other way around.
So (C) is gone.
Quote:
(D) partly because certain characteristics should be acquired by their steers
(D) has the same problem as examples #1 and #2 above. The use of “should” is just wrong here, because it implies some sort of value judgment: maybe my wife thinks that I “should” be more efficient at changing dirty diapers, or maybe you think that I “should” eat less bhindi masala. (Personally, I think that I “should” eat more bhindi masala, but that’s just my opinion.)
But that makes no sense in this case: ranchers are using crossbreeding
in order to accomplish something, not because they “should” accomplish something. For that reason, (D) can be eliminated.
Quote:
(E) partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers
Here we go, this one looks more like #5 in our examples above. The parallelism is fine now (“partly” and “partly” are parallel), and it’s clear that the ranchers are crossbreeding for the purpose of acquiring characteristics in their steers.
It sounds terrible, in my opinion. (But by now you probably know that
your ear is not your friend on GMAT SC, right?) Because (E) is the only answer choice that makes logical sense, it is the correct answer.